Saw one of the more interesting articles about the past, present, and future aspects of competitive swimming on SwimInfo's website the other day from Wayne Goldsmith..
www.swiminfo.com/.../7720.asp
I think it provokes a great deal of thought in this arena and specifically within this group since many of us either participate, have friends/relatives who participate, or remember participating in competitive swim meets.
I particularly appreciate the parents perspective provided in the article. While I have little children (5 and almost 3 years old), the thought of going through what my parents did with me makes me hesitate to sign up for the first set of SwimAmerica lessons or summer club swim team to introduce them to swimming. While I swam through my school age years, I didn't really consider just what my parents had to go through right along with me.. I was always thinking about what i was going through. Wow!
Check out the article and see what you think...
Rob
I'm definitely an outsider looking in to this discussion. But I'll go ahead and state my case.
I never swam as a a kid. We lived near a pool where I spent many hours goofing around and was one of the few kids who could swim underwater "all the way across" (25 yards) on a dare. But I never swam on a team of any sort, nor did I swim laps.
A fewyears ago I took up swimming as a 28 year old man and have been a part of several teams. I really enjoy swimming and can honestly say, it has changed my life.
But what did I do when I was young? Played basketball. For hours a day. Every afternoon in the driveway for hours, just passed the time shooting hoops with no particular purpose. But practice was only 2 hours day. We had no swim teams at the time, but if we had the thought of going to practice twice a day and the first one being at 6 am would have been a non starter. Wouldn't have even considered it.
In fact I have since come to realize after a few years of swiming that I seem to have a knack for it and would have had a very good chance to get a college scholarship with it. However, even knowing that; I wouldn't do it if I had the opportunity. 4 to 5 hours a day is too much.
And I am ready to take up the mantle as the person who wants to talk about late blooming swimmers ad the vo2max values thereof!
I'm definitely an outsider looking in to this discussion. But I'll go ahead and state my case.
I never swam as a a kid. We lived near a pool where I spent many hours goofing around and was one of the few kids who could swim underwater "all the way across" (25 yards) on a dare. But I never swam on a team of any sort, nor did I swim laps.
A fewyears ago I took up swimming as a 28 year old man and have been a part of several teams. I really enjoy swimming and can honestly say, it has changed my life.
But what did I do when I was young? Played basketball. For hours a day. Every afternoon in the driveway for hours, just passed the time shooting hoops with no particular purpose. But practice was only 2 hours day. We had no swim teams at the time, but if we had the thought of going to practice twice a day and the first one being at 6 am would have been a non starter. Wouldn't have even considered it.
In fact I have since come to realize after a few years of swiming that I seem to have a knack for it and would have had a very good chance to get a college scholarship with it. However, even knowing that; I wouldn't do it if I had the opportunity. 4 to 5 hours a day is too much.
And I am ready to take up the mantle as the person who wants to talk about late blooming swimmers ad the vo2max values thereof!
